Why Can’t I Settle

It’s the first time I have truly been able to say I am completely happy with where I am. But for some reason, this feeling of unsteadiness has over taken me. I want a new job, a new town and a new start.

I love my parents, but living with them after living on your own is a whole other ball game. I’m living with them now because, honestly, it’s cheap. I just bought a car and I’m living on a journalist salary — which if you don’t know is small.

I also love and adore my hometown. I go anywhere and I see someone I know. The small-town life is one I want for my children, but right now while I’m single and young and I want something else, something different.

Then there’s work.

I love it. I get to write about things I enjoy, talk with amazing people and listen to fascinating stories for a living, for a living! But then comes my feelings of restlessness, the feeling that tells me I want change, and now.

I talked with my friend Leslie about this, and while she was a Public Relations major she took some psych classes and feels pretty well versed on the subject.

Leslie told me it’s our generation.

We feel a constant need for change. Look at us, we have to have phones that can do everything, watch television with features that allow us to speed past the commercials and become bored quickly (well, at least that’s how I feel) with everything from to school to our love lives.

Who knew being 23 could present so many challenges.

So here is my dilemma.

Do I start looking for a new job? Should I just get over myself and stick it out? If I quit, will future employers wonder at my lack of time at each workplace?

I’ve also felt that journalism would be something for now, just right now. I’ve never envisioned myself working my entire life as a reporter, and I would be far too board stuck behind a desk as an editor. So what will I do?

No clue.

For now, I write and enjoy my job. I’ve put some thoughts into the future, especially since my feelings of antsy-ness (it’s a word) have overtaken me.

I’m looking for a new start, but I’m letting God direct me.

So when, where, who and all the other questions floating around will have to wait.

3 responses to “Why Can’t I Settle”

May I recommend small-town newspapers. You’ll wear more hats at once but you learn so much. If you’re lucky, as I was a number of years ago, to have an editor who knows much about the industry, the business of newspapers and is someone who you can also enjoy a great dinner and a bottle of wine with, you’ll be blessed in many ways.
Get to know as many people in town as possible — even the ones you won’t like much can teach you something. Who knows, they may hire you to do something truly wonderful. It happened for a former editor of mine who now has an awesome job.
Use this time to find something else you might want to do that actually pays you a salary rather than treating you like an indentured servant. For me that is teaching… I’m planning on using my journalism degree as a platform to teach high school English and maybe even journalism and photography. I should have my teaching credential this year and hopefully a teaching job next year. Journalism a wonderful thing to do for a few years but certainly not (for most people) something to make a career of, and certainly not if you want to be married.

Todd, I was looking through past post and saw this one. I hope everything with your certification is going well … and thank you so much for all your encouraging posts on this blog. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy them!